It was 1986, and the summer saw not one Disney cartoon, but two. The latter was the famous (or infamous, depending on your view of it) "The Black Cauldron," the first animated non-musical with a tone quite different than what comes out of the house of the Mouse.
Squeaking... or speaking of mice, the first of the pair was "The Great Mouse Detective," based on the Basil of Baker Street series written by Eve Titus (books 1-5, published from l58-'82). A little over three decades after the movie came out, Catherine Hapka revived the series with new stories between 2018 and 2020. No, I haven't read any of them... yet.
However, I finally watched one of the Disney movies that fascinated me the most. Two reasons. First was the mystery angle. The other was to hear Vincent Price's voice bring life to Professor Ratigan.
Does this movie reach the ranks of Disney classics like "Snow White," "Bambi, "Peter Pan," or "The Jungle Book?" No. However, I found it enjoyable. I enjoyed seeing the character development in Basil. And Price definitely sounded like he was enjoying that role. (By the way, for side trivia, the actor associated with Holmes and Vincent Price played in at least two movies together: 1940's "The Tower of London" where Basil Rathbone had the lead, and "Comedy of Terrors" in which Price starred with Peter Lorre as his henchman - Boris Karloff also was in both movies.)
I would recommend this movie.
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